A Night To Ourselves (Humanstuck!)
by BotChamelyJeffersonthe3rd
Summary: Your trolls are humans. Angsty, disgusting, urge having humans. Some will take risks in life; the others will squander at dead end jobs wondering how they wasted their youth so quickly. But before that they had one last night to themselves. This is their story. (Enter Law and Order Gavel Sound)
1. Exams of a Blind Girl

There's a point in every person's life where they find their golden years. The years where you can find yourself fondling books and dripping brain fluids from a gaping bullet hole after you realize- not only can you not cram two semesters worth of knowledge into your head, but you also can't read. This was the exact moment when Terezi realized why there was no braille on the sign to the Library.  
She constantly sniffed and bit at the book, trying to make any sense of it. Hoping- praying- that some form of knowledge could be retained from her being an absolute idiot. When the sharp ends of her canines began digging slightly into the cover she rubbed her hand over it again to find, surprisingly, a hint of braille. To which she read, "A… N…" and became quickly disappointed. In a fit of annoyance, she threw the book to the ground where it landed into a now sizable pile of the others previously chewed and discarded.  
Picking up another book from the shelf she took a long whiff of the cover. The faint fragrance of musty paper and saturated ink seemed nearly foreign due to her distaste in books. Yet, they were distinct, nonetheless. With a long, tender lick of the cover she waved her tongue over the plastic screen, imagining the bouquet of flavorful colors that could be daunting above the arranged contents. The secrets she'll never be able to read. Terezi stroked it solemnly before digging into it with her teeth. 'Still nothing,' she had thought to herself, just as she threw the book away. Though it is a common myth that the senses can be heightened by removing one, Terezi was a firm believer in the misconception, claiming to taste and smell a variety of colors. When she's not rolling her tongue over every Starburst flavor around her, she can feel the tiny pores and ridges on anything she can get her hands onto. She also had a knack for hearing even the most lull whisper. Which is to say it was pretty easy to perk her head up when the chimes for the bell reverberated amongst the room.  
With a quick look upwards, she groaned and rolled her eyes. What's with time, anyways? Can't it slow down for one goddamn minute to help a blind girl in her time of need? With a snap of her cane she released the inner cord and draped it over her neck. Holding on to both ends of the stick, she dashed out of the library, leaving an unsavory mess for the librarian.  
Terezi sprinted down the halls, past people who were already steps away from their classes. She turned her head left and right, trying to make sense of things before giving out a subtle sniff and pointing herself into the right direction. With a mischievous grin she began heading straight for it. The soft oily squeaks of street licorice, roaming the hallway with a sweet bounty of caramel skin icing. That is to say, it caught her attention quite well.  
"Oh, hey Tere- ZI!" it was too late, the mighty beast had pounced, but not to catch prey, to catch her ride. She gripped firmly, with one hand, onto one of the handles to his chair, and the other still holding tight to her disjointed cane. The momentum of her jump pushed them off. Tires screeched against the floors as she kicked them off of lockers for quick maneuvers, aiming towards a particular flight of stairs. "Uh…! Terezi do you know what you're doing!?" Tavros asked, worried about the sudden downfall before them.

"You're Peter Pan, right? We're gonna fly!" With a booming cackle she and her friend shot off the floor, floating three feet off the nearest step that they would eventually land on. The wheelchair teetered before stumbling down the flight. And, leaning back and forth, she tried to keep steady. She gave a wicked grin towards Tavros' grand opera of terror as they bounced down to the ground. Terezi unsheathed the other half of the cane from her hand and jammed it into the spokes of the ride.  
When two forces of great power meet each other, it is only destiny for one to win, and they either win through passion or pain.  
When the chair toppled over and rolled, rocketing out a beat-up Tavros and a disheveled Terezi she looked up to where she would usually hear noises.  
Nothing.  
Not a sound. She sniffed slightly but could only smell the light caramel flesh of her crippled friend. No other person roamed the halls, not this close to the-

BING. BING. BING.

"Shit…" she grumbled to herself. Taking one last face to the fallen hero she couldn't help but feel a sense of remorse. To have had her made it this far she gave a stern nod, holding back the tears she'd later shed for the wounded soldier.

Adios Toreador.  
Adios.

Turning down the hall she booked it, making it to class as fast as she could. She dragged her hand along the sides of the wall. Feeling over every nameplate the subtle bumps under her fingers would reveal. She stopped in her tracks, and opened the door.  
"You'd better have a good explanation on why you're-" with a slight grunt, the teacher looked up at the door before immediately sputtering and composing herself.

"My excuse is, 'I'm blind.' I thought you knew that by now, Miss." With a slight chuckle and toothy smirk she took off her backpack and dragged it by the top handle to her seat.

"Yes, I apologize, Pyrope. Anyways class, get out your pencils and clear off everything from your desk. Ms. Pyrope, I'll send around the aid and they can give you your audio exam."  
Making her way to her desk she sat down and pulled out her pencil. Covered in chew marks and months of dried saliva, along with unpleasant memories of tongue splinters from licking the cherry red paint bare off it's back. It surely had seen better days… and probably better tests. The student aid had finally come around and set up a small laptop and a pair of thick, bulbous headphones for Terezi to start her test. Attached to the laptop was a plug-in with five buttons in braille which she felt over to double check. Of course she needn't use the pencil. What use to a blind girl would there be for a test she had to write on? It was simply a token of good luck she's exchanged to herself since seventh grade. Terezi gave it a celebratory lick, before noticing the slight uncomfortable vibe given off from the student aid.

"Thanks so much, but I should be good now." She gave a sarcastic grin and a wave off to the aid. She now had to direct all focus onto her test. Oh god, how she loathed them. They were all just mind games. Mind games that like to kick you while you were down.  
She pulled the headphones over her ears and opened the laptop to the test. She listened to the horrendous words that droned on and on about god knows what! Just hoping to skip past the agonizing realization that the tutorial was just making up time to waste, she pressed A.

"Ok class, I'm passing out your tests now." The teacher proclaimed, "Remember: no talking, glancing, no cheating or else it'll result in an automatic fail. Terezi, you can start your test now, everybody else is just getting their packets."

"Great, I'll be sure to pass with flying colors." Terezi gave a faux smile of determination before immediately frowning with distaste. Such a low grimace barely creeped up to her face as she began her test. It was only a matter of time until she'd feel the weight of ignorance bare her down. Terezi skimmed through the stories, barely rimming through them with much thought as she blinked in and out of listening to the audio tapes. Each answer she gave was either a half assed guess or a tedious five minutes of thinking. Two hours passed and the questions piled up. She felt the overbearing load break her back as she scaled as far as she could. The top of the mountain, so close, but yet so far. The mighty dragoness would surely shatter at the impending doom. Her mighty talons slipped off their only handle… And, almost as prophecy, the mighty rings brought her to her astounding downfall.  
Time was always the enemy of the mind. It's what brought people down to her lowest, and there she was being the lowest she could. Her finger burned as she rapidly mashed the A button for dear life.

The day was over. She had to go.  
The year was over. She was free.

Abruptly the dragon flourishes her wings as she aspires into the air. Mighty talons once clinging to the threshold between demise and safety let go anew for others to be challenged on. Now was the day where she flew. She spread her wings far open as she took to the skies.  
Out the door, past the halls, and through the gates of four years of detention, she emerged. A full fledged adult, prowling with her mighty scales sleek and neo. She was a dragon and her kin all stay and waited amongst themselves where they have been for all years preceding it.

"Hey guys," she cackled, running over to join her friends, "what'd I miss?"

"Where the hell were you? It's been over ten minutes since class ended!" She could recognize that smell of cheap black hair dye and raspy voice anywhere.

"Oh lay off Karkles! I have a disability you know," she gave a wry smirk. Just hearing the cute way he seemed she raise his voice ever so slightly when irritated made her want to tease him more. It was almost an addiction to hear him get all worked up.

"Bullshit! I know damn well you can go anywhere you want to! You've got some pseudo-science, color skittle, bullshit going on with your brain that can help you see! You know you can't pull that shit on me anymore!"

Oh how she was going to miss this. The simple times where she can tease the bitterness out of the grumpiest guy on earth. The way she could make him rage in fury without crossing lines. It's hard finding people who would stick along with you long enough to learn how to endure everything you do. And Terezi, though she very seldom say, was very grateful for it.

'This is going to be one hell of a summer.' the mighty dragoness thought to herself.


	2. Leaderly Advice

There's nothing wrong with wanting one last night of freedom. There's nothing wrong with wanting to stretch it out to two weeks. But there is something wrong when you have to come up with an activity tailored to a twelve group of friends so radically different from each other, it's embarrassing.  
Karkat had been mentally beating himself up over it for weeks. What was something they could all do together that everyone didn't absolutely hate? One of the greatest mysteries of their time.

"So what's the big plan for this year, Karkat? Got another extravaganza up your disgusting grey hoodie's sleeve?" Terezi cackled.  
Oh great, another insult from the leet queen herself. Karkat never understood why he'd hung out with her for so long. She was rude, troublesome, and one of the biggest meddlers who ever took out a notepad to meddle with. He never understood why, especially during times like these.

"As a matter of fact, I do! Now if we're done discussing the matters of blind flighty broads with a legal complex, then I think some quick words are in order." He said, straightening up, readying his fist for the words that he was about to ensue.

"KK, sthpare yoursthelf the embarrasthment and justht tell usth." Oh great, another useless tool trying to take him down a couple pegs. The last thing Karkat wanted was a lisping dork telling him off.

"I'll say whatever I goddamn want! Remember, I'm the elected leader of this miserable excuse for a team!" He retorted with a snarl.

"Karkat, if my memory seems to recall, you elected yourself for team leader and won by default." Just great, another asshole bringing him down. Guess it's just "happy national: tear down the best team leader of their lives" day! Karkat, though, was surprised to hear her hushed tone out of the crowd of imbeciles.

"Really Kanaya, just who's side are you on!?"

"I'm on neither. I just felt it was rather lame for you to even consider calling it a victory for yourself. Or at least heavily imply it." She gave a cunning smile towards their leader.

He rose his hands above his head and slowly drew them down, composing himself with a long breath. Exhaling slowly, he opened his eyes and looked amongst his peers.  
And then he remembered.  
That's why he stuck around.  
Among the crowd of insufferable pricks, flighty broads, and losers, were the people he's known all his life. And though they knocked him down from time to time he saw how they were drawn to him. They all looked upon him, ready for his words for guidance on their last weeks together. They looked for answers, and they looked at him. They'd push and pull him back. They were the realest friends anybody could ever ask for. And even though he solemnly said it, he was grateful.

"I've known all of you dipshits for nearly thirteen years now. Terezi, I knew you before you were blind. Feferi, I've known you since third grade. And don't think I forgot about Mrs. Sahara's class with you you bipolar freak!" Karkat shouted, pointing at Sollux. "And I'm sure we all have dreams we wanna accomplish. I'm gonna join the police force."

"Says who?" Vriska chimed in, thoroughly getting under his skin.

"Says fucking me! Now no more interjections!  
Where was I? Oh yeah," he started again, "Nepeta, don't you want to go to art school?"

"Oh of course," she squealed, "ACU has been my dream efur since I got into art!"

"And Terezi you're trying to get into school to be a lawyer! Eridan, you're taking Fef with you to that pompous, asshole academy!"

"It's called Crown's Academy! For the prestigious an' noble!" Eridan retorted, angrily.

"Exactly! We're all going off to do great things! Or at least most of us are." He paused to look at his lanky juggalo friend, "And that only means we're all gonna lose each other one way or another. We won't have time for each other. We'll fall in debt to our family lives, or the lives we choose to live… So, with these two weeks until grad night, I propose, as your leader, one last moment of our own."

"Oh yeah, and just what are you proposing," Terezi smirked.

Karkat paused for a moment and looked among his party. They all looked at him, a little interested in what his answer could be. What was his answer going to be? Even he didn't know. He looked off into the distance. There was a lush overgrowth of trees leading up to the peaceful empty planes. He knew that area. He and Gamzee would occasionally drive past it whenever he needed a ride to school. It was a nice flatland where the grass would meet desert. Hard floored desert. And although he's never been, he did know it lead up to a rocky forest that spiked its way out of the ground into a wide pillar of crumbling stone. Off in the distance he saw it all. The forest, the mountain, the streams they'd walk by and the stars they'd lie under. He heard the gentle chirps of every cricket's scratched leg and the low croaks from distant toads. He had felt the warm glow of the fire and even smelled the warm grill of the meat they'd hang over it. Their conversations about their lives and all the years preceding them. And just then, he had the answer.

"Alright you useless piles of skin flaps, listen up. We're gonna go on a wilderness adventure." Karkat began, placing a balled knuckle under his chin. Nepeta and Vriska perked up at the thought. "A night at the bottom of that mountain," he said, pointing, "We'll camp out in the harsh survival of the outdoors! Watch nature thrive and test ourselves against the elements!" Equius found himself intrigued, including Tavros. "Sleep under the stars and rise with the big ass one in the sky!" Kanaya looked up with a small grin, curious as to where he was going with this. "We'll stay the nights at Mt Alter! And by the end of those two weeks we'll finally know who we are! Maybe we'll finally stop being a bunch of useless sack of shits!"

"KK," Sollux inquired, "asth majesthtic asth thisth all sthounds, I am not sthpending two weeksth of my sthummer in the forestht with thesthe doucthes."

And it just couldn't get worse when even the juggalo didn't seem too keen on the plan. "Yeah, bro, I mean it's motherfuckin bitchtits hangin' out with all my summer brothers, an' all that jazz. But I ain't up for two a' my weeks on the ground. I already got a wicked case o' scoliosis from my motherfuckin' unicycle accident an' years of sleeping on my horn pile."

"Ugh! You fuckasses are giving me a migraine! You're all too good for a little outdoors adventure, huh?!" Karkat folded his arms and scrunched up crankily. "Well guess what, as your leader I'm ordering you to go! You got this bitch mandatory now! Everybody just take a whiff of that fucking rule nook! Notice the pungent smell of disgust rolling off of it? That's my authority raging into your insubordinate nostrils. Take a good fucking whiff because I'm not changing my mind!"  
And just in the corner of his eye, a ray of light beyond the clouds peered out. A hand raised with a question seeking his authoritative permission. He unfolded his arms and pointed at her, trying to hide his gawking features. "Yes, Feferi?"

When called on she lowered her hand and smiled. "I think I have a way to get us both what we want, instead of clamming around like a bunch of retards!" Feferi giggled, adjusting the pink rims on her face, "You know, my parents have a cabin by the mountain. I can just give them a call and see if we can stay there!"

"Perfect! If I hadn't already bestowed my position of Vice President to Kanaya I'd totally consider you for the spot, Peixes."

"As student council president, I bet I could've given you a lot of references! I'm the glubbing master of intervention!" She joked before choking up and waving her hands non-threateningly towards her friend, "N-No offense Kanaya! I wouldn't want to take your position away!"

"None taken," she chuckled, "To be honest I didn't even know I was filling in the position."  
Karkat put his fists at his hips and looked off to the mountain. "So it's settled. We're heading out to Mt. Alter!" 


End file.
